Dares and Misplaced Cloaks
by Yellowtail555
Summary: Alicia has been dragged to Lockhart's duelling club with Alicia and Katie and she's not happy. Especially with the way this evening is shaping up to be a disaster and a dare is about to make it so much worse.


This was written for the Characterization Competition over at HPFC and was based on totally canon events (the duelling club, those three fighting over the cloak... nothing really besides that but you get the point). Thank you so much to MrsBates93 for betaing. Enjoy!

Katie bounded up to Angelina and Alicia, who were discussing the lack of Quidditch matches due to the Chamber of Secrets being reopened. They were sitting in the circle of armchairs in the corner of the room, Angelina with her eyes closed and leaning back in the chair, feet outstretched on a coffee table and Alicia polishing her unused broom, bent over it with her black hair back in a bun. She'd tilt her head to the side every so often to look up at Angelina, who was going on about extra practices that Oliver was still insisting that they have to prepare for next year, and then she'd look back at her broom handle. She was bored of listening to her friend talk and without even a Quidditch game to look forward to, her fourth year was getting more and more boring.

"Yes, Katie?" she interrupted Angelina's rant to look up at her friend who was quite obviously thrilled to tell them something.

"They're starting a duelling club! First meeting's tonight and guess who's teaching it?"

"Snape?" Alicia had heard the rumours flying.

"Well, _yes_, but besides him."

Alicia was used to this. Angelina was the fiery one, she was driven and confident, she may not have been the most popular with the teachers but she had long ago earned respect among the students as well as appreciation among the guys. Katie was popular, there was no other way to put it. She was a sweet, easily excited girl who played Quidditch. She was the youngest of the three but made up for that easily by the fact that everyone loved her. She'd bounce around social groups, lending a hand to everyone; but she was strictly loyal to her house (even though she once confessed to Alicia that she'd nearly been made a Hufflepuff) and was always back by best friends sides at the end of the day. Alicia... Alicia was the Gryffindor chaser who was friendly but not _as_ friendly as Katie, driven but not _as_ driven as Angelina, a good Quidditch player but not _as_ good as Oliver, and willing to do anything, as stupid as it was, but not being _as_ famous for it as the Weasley twins. Alicia was commonly considered average and she was sick of it.

"Lockhart..." Katie had given up on her friends and cut right to the point. "Lockhart's gonna be there. And you know what that means." She pretended to faint, landing in the third armchair and leaning forward, to whisper to her friends. "Hey, Alicia, I dare you to get a picture with Lockhart."

"What...? No wa-" Alicia considered it. Here was a way to prove she wasn't just 'average', that she was just as good as her friends, and she would take it. "Fine. But you owe me one."

Katie rubbed her hands together and Angelina rolled her eyes. "This is gonna be good..."

-:-

"Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry, you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him."

Katie was gazing up at their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a look of pure lust. Angelina pretended to puke and Alicia shook her head.

"I thought that she believed all the fawning over him was stupid too."

"Oh," Katie gushed, "I understand what they all see in him."

"As you can all see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

Lockhart started down the platform that he and Snape were standing on, pausing in front of the three chasers. Katie looked as though she were about to pass out. Their professor slipped his coat off, throwing it into the crowd, right to Katie whose eyes were wide with joy.

"I'll need that back after the demonstration." He winked at Alicia's blond friend and continued to walk, his wand out but the threesome had already turned to the next problem.

"Oh, this is going to make the dare so easy. Thank Merlin. Hand it over, Katie. I'll get the picture." Alicia grabbed a corner of the cloak, as much as Katie would allow her.

"But... but..."

Angelina yanked it from both of them, handing it over to Alicia. "Katie, it was your dare. Besides, you could have any boy in this school... why do you even want Lockhart? If you're looking for famous, go find Harry Potter. At least you've actually talked to him and he's close to your age."

"But... he's... and Lockhart's..."

Angelina, however, wasn't finished. "Look, he's partnering people up. You two team up, I'll go find Fred. Oh, and Alicia... give the man back his cloak."

Alicia nodded and left a very distraught Katie to find him. She didn't need to look far, there he was, grinning at a pair of fifth year girls whose expression reminded her of Katie. Maybe Angelina and Katie weren't as unique as Alicia had thought. After all, Katie was mirroring all these girls who had also hopelessly fallen for a man more than twice their age and Angelina... well, everyone who played Quidditch had to be driven, especially with Oliver pushing them to their limits. Maybe everyone was average overall, and maybe it shouldn't matter whether or not she got a photo with Lockhart or did every dare her friends dished out or tried her hardest at every practice. Maybe only so-so was fine. Maybe she _wasn't_ as great as her friends at some things but at least she wasn't obsessed with Lockhart like Katie or desperate for perfection like Angelina. At least she had her best friends and that's all she needed to prove that she was fine as she was.


End file.
